Following his speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Tuesday 30 September, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was asked about his country’s “path towards Europe“.
Adopted last year, the Armenian law on accession to the EU has “now entered into force”, he confirmed.
To the question of whether accession is possible, “We say that without complying with the EU’s standards, it is impossible to be a Member State of the European Union”.
The main task is therefore to focus on compliance with these standards.
There are two possible options at the end of this process: “Either we get admitted into the EU, or we don’t get admitted”.
“If we get admitted, great. If we don’t get admitted, then we will have found something else which is very important. We will be a country fully compliant with the EU’s standards, which would considerably fortify our democracy, our independence and fortify our prosperity”.
The prime minister had previously stressed the importance of Armenia’s links with the Council of Europe in “implementing democratic reforms”.
“There is tremendous work to be done”, he said, “to establish an independent judiciary, to implement a comprehensive anti-corruption system, to resist hybrid attacks which target democracy, to entrench the Rule of law and justice, to strengthen the protection of human rights, and to increase people’s trust in the state”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)